It looks like The Queen of Soul is a Kamala Harris supporter. In a new campaign ad, the Democratic presidential candidate talks about the “full-on attack on hard-fought freedoms,” as Aretha Franklin’s 1968 classic “Think” plays in the background. As Harris reminds voters of freedoms achieved over the decades over historic footage, including the right to vote for Black Americans and women, as well as a woman’s right to “make decisions about her own body,” the song’s “Freedom” refrain plays.
Billboard has learned that Franklin’s estate reached out to the Harris campaign, making her music available, and specifically suggested “Think” as a good option. The campaign fully embraced the idea for the get-out-the-vote ad, which is running on YouTube and other online outlets, as well as connected TV/premium streaming services. Billboard will update as soon as it learns more.
Franklin has supported Democrats for decades, including performing the national anthem at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. She sang a majestic version of “My Country, Tis of Thee” at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration in 2009. She also sang at a farewell event for Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, in 2015.
When Franklin died in 2018, Obama released a statement that read in part, “Aretha’s work reflected the very best of our American story – in all of its hope and heart, its boldness and its unmistakable beauty.”
While the Harris ad uses “Think,” which Franklin and her ex-husband, Ted White, co-wrote, her signature song, “Respect,” also played a vital role in the civil rights movement in the ‘60s. In her autobiography she wrote of the song that it spoke to “the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher — everyone wanted respect…It was also one of the battle cries of the civil rights movement. The song took on monumental significance.”